New Images Show Virus Dismantled by Broad-Spectrum NanoViricides
Electron Micrographs Confirm Virus Destruction
WEST HAVEN, Conn., May 31, 2007 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- In startling new imagery, a drug developed by NanoViricides, Inc. (Pink Sheets: NNVC) dismantles a virus particle in a visual demonstration of the novel mechanism of action of nanoviricides in vitro.
NanoViricides' President Dr. Anil Diwan unveiled the electron micrographs at the Nano Science and Technology Institute's (NSTI) Nanotech2007 Conference in Santa Clara, CA, May 24. An abstract of the presentation can be viewed at BioNano: NanoMedicine, Diagnostics, Imaging & Therapies.
The electron micrograph can be seen on the company's website at NanoViricides Dismantling MCMV as seen in TEM.
Different broad-spectrum nanoviricides were shown to dismantle the envelope coat of the murine cytomegalovirus, (mCMV) releasing the virus capsids it contains. The released capsids, which contain the genome of the virus particle, are no longer infectious. "This is the first visual demonstration that nanoviricides attack viruses in vitro just the way we've designed them to do so," said Dr. Diwan.
The murine CMV is closely related to the human CMV, which causes various diseases, including ocular diseases such as retinopathy and blindness, especially in immunocompromised patients such as HIV/AIDS cases. CMV has become a major management problem in persons living with AIDS and represents a therapeutic challenge to physicians caring for this population.
Dr. Diwan also presented survival data in mice infected with an otherwise lethal dose of rabies. "That the nanoviricides treatments enabled the animals to survive at all is a major breakthrough in rabies," he noted.
"We now know that our broad spectrum drug candidates are capable of attacking H5N1 bird flu viruses of both Clade 1 and Clade 2 varieties, common influenzas, rabies, and also cytomegalovirus," said NanoViricides' CEO Eugene Seymour, MD, MPH.
"Just as ampicillin works against a wide range of bacteria, we believe broad-spectrum nanoviricides can be designed to work against a wide range of viruses," he added further.
There can be no assurance that this demonstration or the results of our animal studies may ever lead to the development of a nanopharmaceutical product approved for commercial resale or that, if approved, a commercial market will develop for our products.
About NanoViricides: nanoviricides.com |
